Preparation
mediumCulpeper uses mace as an aromatic spice in a compound paste or troche with gentian, tormentil, orris, zedoary, cinnamon, cloves, angelica, coriander, roses, citron peel, liquorice, and hippocras.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Mace
Myristica fragrans
Mace appears in Hermetikon as an archive-backed plant entry, with references across historical medical, magical, symbolic, and ritual contexts where the source texts support them.
- Risk
- moderate
- Books
- 20
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 48
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- mace
- Latin name
- Myristica fragrans(candidate)
- Identity note
- Mace is also a weapon or emblem of office; spice context is the intended plant thread.
Safety
moderate
Mace shares nutmeg-family cautions; high doses are unsafe.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- MSK About Herbs: Mace shares nutmeg-family cautions; high doses are unsafe.
Aliases
maceMyristica fragrans
Mace in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Mace (Myristica fragrans) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are preparations, ritual uses, and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Ritual
mediumSpence preserves a Mercury-hour spirit-conversation rite in which the chafing dish is perfumed with aloe-wood or mace, benzoin, or storax.
Identity
mediumSome mace archive hits are not the spice: Frazer's Cilician god carries a mace or truncheon, making those passages symbolic weapon evidence rather than Myristica fragrans evidence.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1907
§ 9. The Burning of Cilician Gods.
Preparations and ritual uses
fumigation
mediumSpence uses mace as a possible perfume for a chafing-dish fumigation in a Mercury-hour spirit-conversation rite.
Mace Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
5 passages across 5 books; strongest source: Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.
Matched as mace; medium confidence.
Astrology
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable.
Matched as mace; medium confidence.
Preparation
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as mace; medium confidence.
Symbolism
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as mace; medium confidence.
Ritual
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Book of Black Magic.
Matched as mace; medium confidence.
Mace Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"...s. *College.*] Take of the roots of Gentian, Tormentil, Orris Florentine, Zedoary, of each two drams, Cinnamon, Cloves, Mace, of each half a dram, Angelica roots three drams, Coriander seeds prepared, Roses, of each one dram, dried Citron pills two drams, beat them all into powder, and with juice of Liquorice softened in Hippocras, six ounces, make them into soft paste, which you may form into either troches or small rolls, which you please. *Culpeper.*] It preserves and strengthens the heart exceedingly, helps faintings and failings of the vital spirits, re..."
Chapter 60Open in Reader
Preparationalias: macemedium confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"...ranches, and the smallness of the umbels; and more than all by the peculiar taste of the seeds, which have a flavour of mace. It is proper to be particular, because the plant is worth knowing. Its root is good for all diseases of the urinary passages, and the seeds are good in disorders of the stomach and bowels, and also operate by urine. The quantity of a scruple given in cholics often proves an immediate cure, and they are a good ingredient in bitters. ### ALKANET. *Anchusa.* ALKANET is a rough plant, of no great beauty, cultivated in France and Germany f..."
Page 61Open in Reader
Medicinealias: macemedium confidence
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence
1920
"...zed earth. For fumigation a chafing dish should be used filled with freshly kindled coal and perfumed with aloe-wood or mace, benzoin or storax. The experiment of holding converse with spirits should be made in the day and hour of Mercury : that is the ist or 8th, or the 15th or 22nd (See Neeromaney). The Grand Grimoire says that when the night of action has arrived, the operator shall take a rod, a goat-skin, a blood-stone, two crowns of vervain, and two candlesticks with candles ; also a new steel and two new flints, enough wood to make a fire, half a bott..."
Page 130Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: macemedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1907
"...nic, and turned-up shoes; but his feet rest on the bowed heads of two men, in his right hand he holds on his shoulder a mace or truncheon topped with a knob, while his extended left hand grasps a symbol, which apparently consists of a trident surmounted by an oval with a cross-bar. Behind him follows a similar, though somewhat smaller, figure of a man, or perhaps rather of a god, carrying a mace or truncheon over his shoulder in his right hand, while with his left he holds aloft a long sword with a flat hilt; his feet rest not on two men but on two flat-topp..."
§ 9. The Burning of Cilician Gods.Open in Reader
Symbolismalias: macemedium confidence
The Magus (Vol 1)
Francis Barrett
1801
"...rs: as roses, violets, saffron, and the like. To Mercury, all the parings of wood or fruit: as cinnamon, lignum cassia, mace, citron peel, and bayberries, and whatever seeds are odoriferous. To the Moon, the leaves of all vegetables: as the leaf indum, the leaf of the myrtle, and bay tree. Know, also, that according to the opinion of all magicians, in every good matter (as love, good-will, &c.), there must be a good perfume, odoriferous and precious;— and in evil matters (as hatred, anger, misery, and the like), there must be a stinking fume that is of no wo..."
Page 81Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: macemedium confidence
Books Mentioning Mace
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
mace
17 mentionscited
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
mace
5 mentionscited
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
mace
2 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
mace
2 mentionscited
Transcendental Magic
Eliphas Levi | 1854
mace
2 mentions
The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 3
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky | 1897
mace
2 mentions
The Influence of the Stars
Rosa Baughan | 1880
mace
2 mentions
Chips from a German Workshop (Vol 1)
F. Max Müller | 1867
mace
2 mentions
Primitive Culture, Vol. 2
Edward Burnett Tylor | 1871
mace
2 mentions
The Magus (Vol 1)
Francis Barrett | 1801
mace
2 mentionscited
Star Names
Richard Hinckley Allen | 1899
mace
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1907
mace
1 mentioncited
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
mace
1 mention
Book of Black Magic
Arthur Edward Waite | 1898
mace
1 mention
The Triumphant Chariot of Antimony
Basil Valentine | 1604
mace
1 mention
The Mathnawi
R. A. Nicholson | 1925
mace
1 mention
Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) | 1493
mace
1 mention
Magick in Theory and Practice
Aleister Crowley | 1929
mace
1 mention
The Evil Eye
Frederick Thomas Elworthy | 1895
mace
1 mention
The Secret Doctrine (Vol 1)
H. P. Blavatsky | 1888
mace
1 mention